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Saturday, August 2, 2014

This paradise is the bomb

Military projectile found on Cape Cod beach

A military projectile possibly
dating to the World War II era has been destroyed after it was found on a
Wellfleet beach.

A fisherman found the device in
the sand at Marconi Beach Wednesday and alerted authorities.

The State Police bomb squad
responded, and the device was blown up on the beach at about 7 p.m.

Officials kept curious
spectators about 1,000 feet away from the explosion to protect them from
shrapnel.

Sergeant Jerry Galizio of the
bomb squad told the Cape
Cod Times that the color of the smoke
indicated that the projectile was live when it was detonated.

According to Galizio, the
military used area beaches as practice ranges during World War II, and it is
not uncommon for ordnance to be found even to this day.

Associated Press, July 25, 2014

Excuse
me?

Cape
Cod was once a military practice range?

Wellfleet
is the town next to my own – Truro – and is famous for its world-class oysters.

I’ve
lived here almost 20 years and never knew that while oyster beds were
thriving on the Cape Cod Bay side of town, over on the Atlantic Ocean side
there were live bombs asleep beneath the sand.

Oh, by
the way … where does my other “paradise” house happen to be? Vieques, Puerto
Rico.

Vieques
is most famous for its role as a military practice range from World War II
until 2003. That year, the U. S. Navy pulled out after continuing civil
protests against the near non-stop shelling that eventually took the life of
one resident.

Vieques’
most popular beaches still are identified by the old Navy designations – Red,
Blue, Green. Numerous other paradisal beaches are not open to the public
because of ongoing, federally funded clean-up of unexploded ordnance.

Lonely La Chiva was #1 on Trip Advisor among Vieques attractions.

One of
my favorite snorkeling spots, gorgeous La Chiva (“Blue”) beach, was thought for
years to be bomb-free. But it’s been closed for a second look.

Then
again, I always thought Cape Cod’s beaches were bomb-free.

Marconi
Beach – where the bombshell was found last week -- gets its name from the
Italian inventor who in 1903 transmitted one of the first transatlantic
wireless transmissions from here -- between the president of the United States
and the king of England. Marconi chose the Wellfleet site because of the
barrenness of the high dunes overlooking the ocean.

The
government chose the area for similar reasons during World War II -- and established
Camp Wellfleet as an artillery training facility. The military camp outlived
its need, and in 1961 the property became part of the Cape Cod National
Seashore.

As in
Vieques, weaponry has a history on Cape Cod.

Paleoindian
projectile points have been found at numerous locations, indicating that people
have been here for at least 10,000 years.

5,000
years ago, habitation of the Cape was extensive. Artifacts dating from this
period are found throughout the Cape -- projectile points in particular.

In his
book, Cape Cod, Henry David Thoreau
observed that Native American arrow heads could be found all over the place.

Last
week, as the military projectile was detonated on Marconi Beach, spectators
cheered.

But the
incident serves as a somber reminder that although World War II ended
seven decades ago, it is not fully behind us.

On
January 3, 2014, World War II took another life.

A
heavy-machinery operator was killed when his excavator hit an unexploded World
War II bomb that lay hidden beneath the soil of Euskirchen, in western Germany.
Thirteen others were injured, two critically.

The wrecked excavator and resulting crater from the explosion in Euskirchen.

There
are still thousands of tons of munitions that lie unexploded and undiscovered. Estimates
put the total load of unexploded ordnance between 95,000 and 285,000 tons. In Germany alone.

As
journalist Rebecca Rosen wrote in her
Atlantic magazine story about the explosion:

“One day there will be a final
casualty of World War II, but chances are that we are not there yet. This war
will claim the lives of those born years after it ended, its physical remnants
surviving far longer than its combatants, another reminder that the present is
forever an accretion of the past.”

Peter, We have an island south of the Vineyard which was used for the same:http://www.nytimes.com/1987/05/24/us/navy-bomb-site-rattles-the-vineyard.html so read about this in the NYTimes, 30 years ago. See you Wednesday!!!!! Bill